Offences Against Children

Diana Johnson: To ask the Attorney-General how many referrals have been made to the Crown Prosecution Service by the police regarding child sexual offences in each of the last five years.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of referrals made to the CPS by the police for allegations of child sexual offences. The CPS does identity, by way of a monitoring flag, the number of pre-charge decisions made against suspects alleged to have been involved in the sexual abuse of children. The following table sets out the number of such decisions in each of the last five years:
	
		
			  Pre-Charge Decisions 
			 2008-09 11,094 
			 2009-10 12,691 
			 2010-11 13,018 
			 2011-12 11,613 
			 2012-13 9,381 
		
	
	The CPS definition of child abuse covers any case where the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offence and allegations or crimes perpetrated by both adults and offenders aged under 18.